The Softness of Clouds

“You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.”  Henry David Thoreau

Soft.

When I think of SOFT, various things come to mind.  A whisper.  The glow of a full moon. Spring rain dancing on the roof.  A breeze through the trees.  The tinkling of wind chimes. Even the luxurious coat of such animals as buffalo and mountain goats.

Of course, most of those things are not the easiest to photograph, or—if photographed—not something I could easily reach out and touch. As much as I would love to.

Of course, when I think of SOFT, clouds also come to mind.  True, I cannot touch the clouds.  But I am certain they must be soft and billowy.  As well as impressive, ever present but always changing, and a powerful part of the cycle of nature.  No wonder they have always delighted me.  Thus, these photos of clouds are my response to the Lens Artists Photo Challenge–Soft.

“How sweet to be a Cloud. Floating in the Blue!”  A. A. Milne

“Be comforted, dear soul!  There is always light behind the clouds.”  Louisa May Alcott

“Behind the clouds is the sun, still shining.”  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We talk of sunshine and moonshine, but not of cloud-shine, which is yet one of the illuminations of our skies.  A shining cloud is one of the most majestic of all secondary lights.”  Alice Meynell

“Let’s build us a happy, little cloud that floats around the sky.” Bob Ross

“He who seeks eternity should look at the sky, he who seeks the moment, should look at the cloud.”  Mia Couto

“Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is better to have your head in the clouds and know where you are. . . than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them and think that you are in paradise.”  Henry David Thoreau

 “I see trees of green, red roses too.  I see them bloom for me and you.  And I think to myself what a wonderful world.  I see skies of blue and clouds of white.  The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night.  And I think to myself what a wonderful world.”  Louis Armstrong

Watching Clouds Go By

I like science.  Really.  Perhaps even more than the average Joe or Jane.  But scientific language—although factual and correct—is just so technical.  Take CLOUDS, for example.  According to NationalGeographic.com, clouds are formed “when humid air cools enough for water vapor to condense into droplets or ice crystals.  The altitude at which this happens depends on the humidity and the rate of which temperature drops with elevation.”  The clouds themselves are categorized by the height of their base from the ground.  The categories include cirrus, stratus, and cumulous.

Now, don’t you agree that such a technical definition is incomplete, boring, dry (pardon the pun)?  How clouds are formed and of what they are made shares nothing about their wonder, beauty, complexity, even their drama.  When they appear on the horizon, they provide not only shade and potential rainfall, but change, excitement, detail.  They add depth to the scene and help spark the imagination.  These fanciful qualities of clouds are what makes them so special.

For me, clouds are most impressive when I am on the road, and the clouds take over the horizon.

Zion National Park, Utah

Wonderful vistas themselves are just better with clouds!

Monument Valley, Arizona

Arizona Desert

Canyonlands National Park, Needles, Utah

Bixby Bridge, Big Sur Coastline, California

Pikes Peak, Colorado

Mono Lake, California

This post is my entry for Sunday Stills The Next Challenge: Clouds–visit the site to see all the other entries.  I shared my love of clouds in an earlier post as well:  “I Love Clouds.”

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 SOME QUOTES ABOUT CLOUDS!

“A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed. . . It feels an impulsion. . .this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond the horizons.’  Richard Bach

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious.  And why shouldn’t it be.  It is the same the angels breathe.”  Mark Twain

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”  Konrad Adenauer

“A cloudless plain blue sky is like a flowerless garden.”  Terri Guillemets

“Now, if God made the clouds so beautiful, did He not mean us to gaze upon them and be thankful for them?”  Alfred Rowland

“Why do I love clouds?  Because you can’t save a cloud like you can save a leaf or a flower or a rock—clouds are now.”  Terri Guillemets

“In the afternoon I watch the clouds drift past the bald peak of Mount Tukihnikivats. (Someone has to do it.)”  Edward Abbey

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes in the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”  John Lubbock